Moratorium on killing civilians by militants in Northern Caucasus is not observed, experts say

Attacks on civilians are not a new tactics used by the North-Caucasian underground, but such attacks are outside the ideology of jihad, said Alexei Malashenko, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). In the opinion of Orhan Cemal, an observer of the "Izvestia" newspaper, the moratorium on killing civilians by members of the underground was not actually observed; and given a strong fragmentation, when the network is no longer a single, integrated structure, such guarantees are not possible.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that earlier militants of Kabardino-Balkaria disseminated a video message, in which Tengiz Guketlov, the "Amir" of local militants, took responsibility for the killings of civilians of the Stavropol Territory, but does not specify the casualties. He also stated that the reason for these actions was in the aggression of law enforcers against peaceful Muslims of Northern Caucasus.

The HRC "Memorial" has no information about the killings of civilians by law enforcers of Kabardino-Balkaria, which were mentioned in the video by Tengiz Guketlov.

In 2013, in the Stavropol Territory, at least 17 people fell victim to the armed conflict; of them, 13 persons were killed and four wounded. An aggravation of the situation in the region was noted in the last quarter of 2013, when seven people were lost in the Territory, including four civilians.